Defending Class A private-school champion Mount Paran Christian played the first game in its rebuilt home stadium on Friday, and the Eagles picked right up where they left off in 2014.
Senior running back Taylor Trammell rushed for 176 yards on 20 carries and scored four touchdowns to lead the No. 8-ranked Eagles to their 16th consecutive victory, 35-0 over Whitefield Academy at the newly christened Catherine Steele Sewell Stadium on the school’s Kennesaw campus.
Related: More photos from Whitefield Academy vs. Mt. Paran Christian
Trammell has been asked to carry a bigger load on offense this season after the graduation of quarterback Jake Allen and first-team all-state players Emoni Williams (wide receiver) and Dorian Walker (running back), the offensive player of the year in Class A last season. He has been up to the challenge through two games. In a 42-35 victory against Erwin, N.C., last week, Trammell rushed for 212 yards and five touchdowns on 33 carries. He has committed to Georgia Tech as a baseball player.
“He played a lot of baseball this summer,” Mount Paran coach Mitch Jordan said of Trammell. “He’s just an incredible player. So he’s getting in football shape, and he’s got to get used to carrying the load. Last year we had a one-two punch with him and Dorian at tailback and some other weapons around him. But I’m just proud of him. I know he’s sore right now, but we’re going to need him to be healthy and run the ball hard if we’re going to have a good year.”
Mount Paran’s defense made an impression, as well. The Eagles (2-0) held Whitefield Academy to 15 total yards, which includes minus-50 yards rushing as a result of several big losses on sacks, fumbles and bad snaps. Whitefield Academy’s Carson Brown passed for 65 yards, but the Wolfpack connected on just six of 24 attempts. The Wolfpack ran 20 offensive plays in the second half and gained positive yardage on just three of them.
Whitefield Academy (0-1) was able to stay close for about a quarter and a half despite being dominated statistically. The Wolfpack had 11 yards of offense on its first three possessions but trailed only 7-0 when it punted with about nine minutes left in the first half. Mount Paran took over at the Whitefield 46-yard line and needed eight plays to increase the lead to 14-0 on Taylor Norton’s 1-yard run with 4:55 to play in the half.
Mount Paran finally got some breathing room just before halftime when Trammell scored on a 34-yard pass from Norton with six seconds to play in the quarter for a 21-0 lead.
Trammell broke the game open with touchdown runs of 1 and 42 yards in the first 14 minutes of the second half. He also scored on a 53-yard run in the first quarter.
Mount Paran finished with 290 yards rushing and 310 total yards.
“We still have some things we need to work out,” Jordan said. “We’ve got to cut down on our penalties, we’ve got a couple of guys that are a little banged up, we’ve got to finish some drives, and we’ve got to shore up some things on special teams. But we made a lot of improvement from last week, and I’m proud of the defense for coming back and getting the shutout this week.”
Whitefield Academy – 0-0-0-0 – 0
Mount Paran Christian – 7-14-7-7 – 35
M – Taylor Trammell 53 run (Jackson McLarty kick)
M – Matthew Norton 1 run (McLarty kick)
M – Trammell 34 pass from Norton (McLarty kick)
M – Trammell 1 run (McLarty kick)
M – Trammell 42 run (McLarty kick)
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